Funny how I never got around trying an American made graphite drawing pencil before. That realization dawned on me as I browsed the drafting section at a local
Office Depot and spotted the carded 2-packs of
Sanford Design 3800 drawing pencils hanging on the pegs. Probably because I am already quite content with the performance of my preferred Japanese and German made wooden pencils, it never occurred to me to try the local graphite offerings.
To rectify this situation I grabbed a pack of
2B pencils for a mini review and comparison with a couple of other brands.
This comparison chart was drawn on ivory card stock. The
Design 3800 2B pencil sharpened well and felt fairly smooth on the paper. It retained its sharp point for a long time, but its marks were lighter than the
Staedtler Mars Ergosoft and
Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 2B pencils. The
Sanford Design 3800 pencils turned out to be fine drawing tools (these particular samples were made in the USA on 2002 according to the blister card), and are still fairly available in big box office supplies stores' drafting sections and some arts & crafts stores. Yet since Sanford's pencil manufacture is been
relocated to Mexico, you might want to stock up on the remaining US-made pencils if you enjoy their current look and performance.
Funny how I never got around trying an American made graphite drawing pencil before. That realization dawned on me as I browsed the drafting section at a local Office Depot and spotted the carded 2-packs of Sanford Design 3800 drawing pencils hanging on the pegs. Probably because I am already quite content with the performance of my preferred Japanese and German made wooden pencils, it never occurred to me to try the local graphite offerings.
To rectify this situation I grabbed a pack of 2B pencils for a mini review and comparison with a couple of other brands.
This comparison chart was drawn on ivory card stock. The Design 3800 2B pencil sharpened well and felt fairly smooth on the paper. It retained its sharp point for a long time, but its marks were lighter than the Staedtler Mars Ergosoft and Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 2B pencils. The Sanford Design 3800 pencils turned out to be fine drawing tools (these particular samples were made in the USA on 2002 according to the blister card), and are still fairly available in big box office supplies stores' drafting sections and some arts & crafts stores. Yet since Sanford's pencil manufacture is been relocated to Mexico, you might want to stock up on the remaining US-made pencils if you enjoy their current look and performance.
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2 comments:
Hey, I absolutely love what you are doing here with your blog! On behalf of the many many stationary/art supply enthusiasts out there, I would like to thank-you for all your reviews! They are so helpful and there's a lot of new goodies to discover from you! I was wondering if you could do a future post on which is the smoothest white pencil you have. I enjoy using toned paper like the canson one's, and I would like to know which are the softest/smoothest white pencils available! Thank-you again for this wonderful blog! Looking forward to many more posts! :)
Thank you. I don't tend to use my white pencils too often, but I would suspect the white Derwent Coloursoft pencil might be a good place to start. I will round them up upon my return home and post a few samples on a tinted paper.
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